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HAGATNA, Guam (Pacific Daily News, Nov. 1) – U.S. federal efforts to control immigration in the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands could give Guam a shot at the visa waiver it needs to increase tourism from China, a retail industry executive told the Guam Chamber of Commerce during its membership meeting yesterday.

Jim Beighley, managing director of Duty Free Shops Mid-Pacific Division, said bills in the U.S. House and Senate that would federalize immigration in the Northern Marianas also would allow the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands to retain its existing visa waiver for China.

It's possible that a visa waiver for Guam could be added to those bills, he said, noting that Guam could see as many as 700,000 Chinese tourists a year within the next five years if there was a waiver.

About 38 million Chinese traveled abroad last year, he said, and that number is expected to increase to 50 million travelers by 2010....

HAGATNA, Guam (Pacific Daily News, Nov. 1) – Within hours of the slot-machine proponents' request for a Guam Supreme Court order that would place their initiative on the December 15 ballot, the high court yesterday declined to step in – for now.

Proponents of Proposal A, which would legalize slot machines at the Guam Greyhound racetrack, had asked for the Supreme Court's intervention, in part by stating in court papers that the Guam Election Commission was "folding to political pressure by anti-gambling forces."

PORT VILA, Vanuatu (The Independent, Oct. 31) – Residents Against Processing Tuna in Port Vila has this week lodged a claim for judicial review of the Vanuatu project for the fishery at Blacksands, Mele Bay.

[PIR editor’s note: Mele is located northwest of the capital town of Port Vila on Efate Island in Vanuatu.]

Residents Against Processing Tuna says that the director general responsible for the environment unit has failed to require a full environmental assessment as necessary under the Environment Act.

Only a preliminary environmental assessment has ever been sought. It was compiled by government-hired personnel to report in favor of the scheme.

Residents Against Processing Tuna committee members have visited the site of the Chinese funded project and found that work is well advanced in spite of the legal requirement for a full assessment not having been fulfilled.

A sworn statement in support of the claim for judicial review was placed before...

PORT VILA, Vanuatu (The Independent, Oct. 30) – Deputy prime minister and minister of public utilities Edward Natapei says that the participation of Vanuatu in the first-ever business forum initiated by the president of Southern Province of New Caledonia, Philippe Gomez, was positive.

Speaking at the arrival of the delegation at the Bauerfield International Airport on Wednesday morning, Minister Natapei highly praised Mr. Gomez for organizing this forum to enable the private sector for both countries to exchange ideas and know more about each other.

He said, "I see a positive outcome of the forum. The private sector of Vanuatu has been able to inform counterparts from New Caledonia on the climate and the possibility of investment in Vanuatu."

"I can read in the faces of French investors that they will come and invest," said Natapei.

The difficulties faced by investors center on a lack of facilities such as a French bank, but Bred Bank will soon open its...

PORT VILA, Vanuatu (The Independent, Oct. 31) – Vanuatu Commissioner of Labor Department Lionel Kaluat is urging people to be optimistic about the Recognized Seasonal Employee Schemes (RSE) between the Vanuatu and New Zealand governments.

Commissioner Kaluat made the statement following the departure from Vanuatu of about 126 workers from Vanuatu to Otago, New Zealand, two weeks ago.

They were traveling on the same aircraft that flew Prime Minister Ham Lini and his delegation for the South Pacific Forum meeting in Tonga.

"I am optimistic about the scheme because it will bring major changes in the livelihoods and standards of living for ni-Vanuatu people, especially workers, once they return and go back to their islands and provinces," Kaluat stressed.

He said that the labor department is planning to hold awareness talks in provincial councils and with relevant authorities including health, immigration and police, in order to strengthen the services...

NUKU΄ALOFA, Tonga (Radio Tonga News, Oct. 31) - A group of New Zealand Pacific Business people are on an inaugural mission to discover business opportunities in their Pacific homelands.

A statement says that for the first time, the Pacific Islands Trade & Investment Commission (PITIC NZ) is leading a business mission of 10 Pacific island business people to Samoa and Tonga on the Air NZ Return to Roots Mission from next Monday, November 5th to the tenth.

The Pacific Islands Trade & Investment Commission (PITIC NZ) is an agency of the Pacific Islands Forum Secretariat (PIFS) and is fully funded by NZAID, under the umbrella of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade.

PITIC NZ Trade Commissioner Chris Cocker said, "Air New Zealand has generously sponsored our business and media passengers and with their help, the mission aims to inspire Pacific Island business people from New Zealand to seek new business opportunities in the...

PORT MORESBY, Papua New Guinea (PNG Post-Courier, Oct. 31) - The PNG Post-Courier newspaper’s editorial direction and content is decided by an all-Papua New Guinean team of journalists, according to the publication’s Australian owner.

It is not directed by any executive of the newspaper’s parent company, News Limited, in Australia, Post Courier board chairman Peter Chegwyn said yesterday.

Speaking to shareholders at the company’s annual general meeting at Sela Haus, the newspaper’s headquarters in Port Moresby yesterday morning, Mr. Chegwyn said the board had full confidence in the newspaper’s all-Papua New Guinean editorial team and commended it for its fearless reporting of corruption and social problems in the country.

"To those who enjoy, when it suits them, making suggestions that our editorial direction is biased towards Australian wishes, may I just say that never has any executive of our parent companies interfered in the editorial policies of this...

SAIPAN, CNMI (Marianas Variety, Nov. 1) – Halloween on Saipan was a little scarier at 1:30 p.m. yesterday when an earthquake with a magnitude of 7.0 on the Richter scale jolted residents.

"It was scary because we felt the building move and it was continuing and we felt it pretty strongly so we ran out," said U.S. Probation Officer Maggie Wonenberg who is among the federal employees whose offices are in the Horiguchi Building in Garapan.

Wonenberg was on the second floor conducting a teleconference interview with their main office on Guam when they felt "the shake," and heard the clerk of court telling everybody to vacate the building.

"It was pretty scary," she said, adding that she was not able to call home because she left her purse with her cell phone and everything in it in the office.

"My kids were at school and I wondered if I could give them a call," she said.

The MV Miss Mataroa is doomed to be scuttled at sea within our Exclusive Economic Zone on Monday. But did anyone tell the public that the government ministries have asked that huge piles of asbestos roofing be dumped along with the ship to its watery grave?

It seems that John Fallon in his dual role as harbormaster and court appointed liquidator for the doomed ship has approved the dumping of piles of asbestos on to the doomed ship.

Most of the asbestos is wrapped in black polythene, but some of it was just open to the elements with no covering of any description. This could add up to an environmental disaster about to happen.

Several months ago, an expert from one of the United Nations agencies regarding the safe disposal of...

Pacific Islands Report is a nonprofit news publication of the Pacific Islands Development Program at the East-West Center in Honolulu, Hawai‘i. Offered as a free service to readers, PIR provides an edited digest of news, commentary and analysis from across the Pacific Islands region, Monday - Friday.